Baltimore County News

Replacement Bridge was Completed in Six Months, Despite Weather Delays

The replacement Gwynnbrook Avenue bridge in Owings Mills is opening today prior to afternoon rush hour traffic. Department of Public Works engineers closed the previous bridge, spanning a tributary of the Gwynns Falls between Owings Mills Boulevard and Garrison Forrest Road, in December 2016, when inspectors identified safety concerns related to diminished structural integrity. The reopening is important to the community because this bridge carries some 7,000 vehicles per day.

Construction of the replacement bridge had been underway since last July and included the relocation of utilities and a stream diversion to maintain the tributary’s flow as the project proceeded. A water line, which runs through Gwynnbrook Avenue, was then relocated to permit construction, and the old, 23-foot long bridge was demolished.

The new Gwynnbrook Avenue bridge is a two-lane, single-span, pre-stressed concrete, slab bridge. It is roughly square in outline: fifty feet long and fifty-three feet wide with sidewalks on both sides. Construction costs were about $2.6 million, with 80 percent of the expense covered by the federal government’s bridge program.